


Be Smarter Not Braver

by victoriousscarf



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Hogwarts Seventh Year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-06
Updated: 2014-05-06
Packaged: 2018-01-23 18:25:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1575167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/victoriousscarf/pseuds/victoriousscarf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Yeah, and did you see the Carrows?” Neville demanded. “You think we’d get to go back to the forest to pick mushrooms if we broke into his office again? Look, I’m just saying there might be another tactic that would be—”</p><p>“Safer?” Ginny snarled.</p><p>“—Smarter,” he finished and paused. “Thanks for that, by the way. You know, your faith means a lot to me.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Be Smarter Not Braver

The third time Neville stood up and looked out of their compartment, he felt Ginny’s eyes on him. “What?” he asked, sitting back down.

“They’re not coming,” she said, her knees curled up to her chest. “Harry and the others. They’re not coming back this year.”

Neville swallowed hard, shifting slightly as he watched her. “I know,” he murmured to the ground between his feet instead of meeting her too sharp eyes. “I think I knew, anyway, before. But I kept hoping I was wrong.”

“They left at the wedding,” Ginny said and there was a slow bitterness to her voice that Neville had to look up. “Didn’t even manage to convince Harry to dance with me one more time.”

Neville almost managed not to say anything to that. “I’m sure he misses you,” he humbled, still talking to the ground and heard her shift. Moments later, Luna entered, sitting down and curling up against Neville’s side as if it was the most natural thing in the world. “Hey, Luna,” Neville said and she hummed, already reading _The Quibbler_ , content and warm against his side. When Neville looked up, Ginny’s gaze was already darting away.

-0-

The first time Ginny kissed him—because he certainly had not kissed her—they were in the Forbidden Forest and yelling because no one else was around to listen to them.

Hagrid had set them to do their work, walking off with Luna and leaving Fang with them. Neville remembered this set up from years ago, and wondered why Hagrid still seemed to think it was okay to split groups up and leave them alone in the dark. As they walked off, Luna had been dreamily chattering to Hagrid and he both looked like she disturbed him a little, and like she was the best thing he had ever seen.

“I don’t think we should try something like that again,” Neville had said, voice almost conversational but it trembled and Ginny stopped, turning to stare at him. He could see her eyes glinting even in the dark of the forest and knew the way her expression had sharpened without having to see it.

“Excuse me?” she asked.

“I don’t think,” he cleared his throat. “It was stupid. We were stupid. We should never—I don’t think it’s a good tactic, to go so frontal with Snape. I mean, trying to steal the sword.”

“It doesn’t belong to him. He barely gave us a slap on the wrist,” Ginny said, eyes narrowed.

“Yeah, and did you see the Carrows?” Neville demanded. “You think we’d get to go back to the forest to pick mushrooms if we broke into his office again? Look, I’m just saying there might be another tactic that would be—”

“Safer?” Ginny snarled.

“—Smarter,” he finished and paused. “Thanks for that, by the way. You know, your faith means a lot to me.”

She shoved hard at his chest. “It’s got nothing to do with faith,” she said and he stumbled backward before catching himself.

“What’s it got to do with then?” he asked.

“We have to fight,” Ginny said, shoving him again but he had braced himself for the motion, ignoring the way Fang whined at their raised voices. “We have to fight them!”

“Did I ever say we shouldn’t?” Neville snapped. “I want them gone, I’m going to fight them until they kill me but we have to be sensible—”

“Sensible?” she yelled, loud enough Neville was certain Luna and Hagrid could hear them. “You want me to be sensible while they hurt people, while Death Eaters run the school and Dumbledore’s murderer sits in his office like he belongs?”

“I want you to survive!” Neville yelled back, and shoved her back, on the chest over her heart and he felt her frame bend back for a second under his hand and for some reason the warmth of her skin distracted him. “I want us to survive,” he repeated, quieter. “To keep fighting. We won’t do that if we fuck up so early now.”

“I can take care of myself,” she said, and there was something bitter and quiet in the statement, something jagged Neville didn’t much want to touch in case it caused him to bleed.

Swallowing, he looked down at his feet again. “I know. I know. You can, you take better care of yourself than I ever could myself. But, Ginny, I need you. I need you to stay with me, to help me, and we’re the DA now we can’t—” but he didn’t finish because for one long moment she had stilled before suddenly lunging forward. “Ginny—” he barely got out, catching her around the waist and being distracted again, by the feel of her under the sweater she wore and really how wasn’t she cold with such a thin layer on, but her skin felt like it burned so that must be it—

Every thought in his head came to a screeching halt because her mouth was pressed against his, lips thin and soft and he was so shocked all he could do was steady her with his hands on her waist, feeling her mouth move against his.

“Harry,” he managed weakly when she pulled back. He wondered if the darkness hid the way he licked his lips, chasing the taste of her as he had dared not open his mouth.

She stared at him for a moment and he could feel the anger and offense in his skin now, from where he held her. “I’m not Harry,” she said.

“That’s not what I meant,” Neville said weakly. “I meant, you and Harry. What’re you kissing me for?”

She grabbed the back of his head and yanked him down so he could feel her breath on his cheek, almost on his mouth. He bit back a high pitched sound that would be of no help in the situation. “Harry broke up with me,” she said slowly, as if he was slow. “He left me.”

“But you love him,” Neville protested.

“Yeah, and I was still in love with him when I kissed Dean, that doesn’t matter,” Ginny said and Neville jerked up and away.

“I don’t want to be,” he started, stomach churning and not certain what he wanted to be until he said it. “His left overs, the person you kiss while you’re waiting for him. I watched you and Dean and I’m not going to be it.” His hands were shaking, shivering as if they missed her heat already. He wished he could see her face. “I can’t be that.”

For a moment they stared at each other, Neville’s hands feeling cold and he wished he could get a clear look at her expression. “Fine,” she said, stiffly and before he could open his mouth, and apologize for saying something so stupid—because honestly, he might kiss her again anyway because it had been more wonderful than he expected and maybe it would be worth it—Luna yelled for them.

They didn’t talk about it.

-0-

The dormitory felt empty and Neville sat on the edge of his bed, looking across at where Harry had slept beside him for six years, Ron on the other side. Seamus was almost directly across the room and he lay on his back, staring at the ceiling. Dean’s bed between them was empty.

“What are you going to do?” Seamus asked, looking like he was talking to the ceiling.

“Fight,” Neville muttered, hands flexing on the edge of the bed.

“Please tell me you’re plan’s more specific than that,” Seamus said, still talking to the ceiling.

“Not yet,” Neville said, hunching his shoulders. For some reason, he always felt like Harry had a plan, even though he knew from experience that simply wasn’t true. But Harry thought well on his feet, and seemed to know what to do. Neville felt like he was walking through molasses.

“Right,” Seamus said and turned his head to where Dean was no longer there. The corners of his eyes tightened and he pushed himself up, to look at Neville. “Maybe we should get Ginny in here, to help plan.”

Neville blinked at him for a panicked minute, feeling a flush rise to his cheeks and nodded. “Yeah, good plan. She’s got a good head for this on her shoulders.” He carefully did not watch her enter, sitting cross-legged on Harry’s old bed. In fact he tried not to really look at her at all as they talked.

-0-

“I thought you wanted to be careful,” Ginny said snidely, stepping into the room of requirement and Neville winced. Luna batted his shoulder.

“I said don’t move,” she said and went back to wiping the blood off the side of his face, starting to rub salve in when she was done.

Neville shifted and looked back up at Ginny who glared down at him, Luna’s fingers following the motion. She had already tried a few spells on his ribs before wrapping them with a bandage to brace his ribs. “I’m sorry,” he managed, almost quailing. “But what else was I supposed to do, just watch it happen?”

“I never said that,” Ginny said, her mouth twisting. “I’m angry that you’re risking your life on one hand and telling me to sit still and be careful on the other!”

“I didn’t plan this—” Neville protested.

Luna’s fingers jabbed the ugly cut on his cheek by accident and he sucked in a pained breath. “This would be easier if I could use a spell on it,” Luna said. “Neville, don’t suffer curse damage again.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” he muttered, eyes sliding away from where Ginny still stood in fury as Luna fastened a bandage on his cheek.

“Is it because I’m a girl?” Ginny asked and Neville jumped, snapping his gaze back to her.

“What?” he asked as Luna patted his cheek and leaned back again, putting the supplies back on the shelves the room had stocked with medical supplies when they entered.

Ginny’s eyes were blazing. “Your double standard,” she said and every line of her body was thrumming with anger. “You can do whatever you want, while I’m supposed to sit home and pretend that nothing’s happening, not to risk myself?”

Staring at her, Neville almost missed the fact that Luna was heading for the door. “He doesn’t say any of that to me,” she said, and they both jumped, turning to look over at her. “I don’t think it’s a girl thing. Honestly, he’s quite content to have me do whatever stupid thing my heart desires, which, admittedly, is probably a bit safer than what yours wants.” She beamed at both of them and turned, floating through the door and leaving them alone.

Neville made a strangled sound, looking at where she had disappeared. “That—Merlin, Luna,” he muttered.

He swallowed hard before he finally turned back to look at Ginny, but she didn’t look angry anymore, just considering. “You’re not going to yell at me again?” Neville asked, hesitant because he was exhausted and even the idea of getting all the way back to the dormitories made him want to curl up where he was and simply go to sleep.

Gritting her teeth, Ginny sighed and sat down next to him, drawing her knees up to her chest. Neville felt awful because every sense was focused on the heat of her next to him, the rise and fall of her breath. _Harry_ , he reminded himself viciously. She was still in love with Harry Potter.

“I can’t tell you to be careful,” Ginny said and he startled, looking over at her. “Because that would be pretty silly, all things considered. Hypocritical even. But,” she chewed on her lip before looking over. “I don’t really like seeing you get hurt either.”

He tried not to stare. “It’s not because you’re a girl,” he said finally. “It’s because I don’t want to lose you. It’s easier if I think you’re safe.”

She tensed and he bit back the sigh he wanted to give. “I’m not just some prize to be put on a shelf and protected—”

“ _I know_ ,” he said, hands coming up to brace his head. “I know, you don’t want to be a prize, or something fragile, or something protected but I can’t help but want to anyway, because you matter to me and you’re reckless but you’re also powerful and capable and I know that but it still makes me twist up that you could get hurt and, damnit, Ginny, I’m not good at losing people, how could I be?”

“Neville,” Ginny said after a moment.

“I lost my parents,” he muttered, looking at the floor between his knees, hands hiding her from even his periphery gaze. “And I’ve never had that many people to begin with. There’s not a lot of people that have cared for me.” He sensed her shift. “I know you think I’m a coward but I can’t lose you.”

There was a long moment of silence before he felt her long fingers on his chin, urging his face up and over. “I don’t think you’re a coward,” she said and Neville tried to look like he believed her. “And I’m going to be careful,” she added, meeting his eyes and his fingers twitched to come up and cover her hand. “For you. I swear I will. But you can’t cut me out.”

“Ginny,” he said slowly. “I don’t think I ever expected to be able to. It’s you, me, and Luna now. The others are gone. We just have to be—”

“Smart,” she finished for him and he smiled at her, wincing when it pulled his cheek painfully. “We just have to be smart about it,” she repeated, sounding distant and when he frowned at her she leaned in and kissed him, mouth firm and chapped against his.

His stomach turned over and his hands fluttered to her waist, grounding himself there. She shifted one of his hands, further back around her waist and he pressed his fingers into her spine and she led the kiss, nudging his mouth to get him to move.

When his breath caught and he pulled slightly away she dragged him back in, both hands tangling in his hair. She drew away enough for him to draw in a desperate breath before they seemed to fall back together in the same moment.

Ginny swiped her tongue suddenly along his mouth and Neville startled in surprise, letting it open without thinking about it. She was instantly there, licking inside and Neville had never had someone else’s _tongue_ in his mouth before and wasn’t that a tragedy? He wished he had figured this out years before as he hauled her closer, letting her explore whichever corner of his mouth she wanted before hesitantly running his tongue along hers.

She groaned, the second echoing through him and making his fingers ache before she pulled away, struggling to catch her breath. “We should get back to the common room,” she said and he blinked.

“What? Oh. Right,” he nodded, prying his fingers away and off, wanting to stay there through as soon as he shifted to rise his body reminded him why that would have been a bad idea.

“Come on,” she said softly, and helped him stand, keeping an arm around his waist the whole way back, leaving him once they reached the door of the boy’s dormitory. He crawled in to bed, feeling like his skin was too tight and aching.

-0-

They were fighting again, Ginny pacing back and forth with a pack of ice that she’d conjured against her cheek.

“That was _stupid_ ,” Neville snapped and she narrowed her eyes at him, Seamus having long since abandoned the boy’s dormitory, muttering something about not getting in the path of a wrathful woman. Neville, apparently, didn’t know better.

“Oh shut up,” she snapped.

“You said you were going to be careful,” Neville said, trying not to focus on the way her hips moved, or the place her shirt dipped down. He had once been quite capable of looking at her without feeling his mouth go dry, he was sure of it.

“Just because I didn’t predict that the bitch was going to show up,” Ginny grumbled, finally sitting down, on Harry’s bed again.

“You have to be careful,” Neville said, though he wasn’t really one to talk, considering the long lines down his back from a spell earlier that week. “They have more power than we do we just have to—”

“I know! Be smarter!” she glared at him, dropping the ice pack and he swallowed hard as she pushed herself to her feet again.

His breath caught as she approached, pulling his head back and leaning down to kiss him, his hands automatically coming up. He expected things a bit better this time, the way her mouth felt, though the scrape of her teeth on his lower lip was new. He sighed happily to have her waist in his hands, thumbs stroking there.

“I’ve been wanting to do that all week,” she murmured and Neville blinked at her.

“Then—can you at least not yell at me first?” he asked and she swallowed, red hair swinging over her shoulders. “Please?” His eyebrows pinched together. “Unless that’s the only way you can justify it—”

She slammed her mouth back down, teeth clanking. “I don’t have to justify anything, Neville,” she said and he felt a shiver go down his spine, allowing himself to be pushed back as she kissed him, hands tight on his shoulders.

When he kissed her, Neville could forget for a moment about everything else, about the Carrows and the way Snape stared at him like he knew Neville was the gnat buzzing in his ear. Like he was allowing them their little rebellions and nothing had scared Neville more. His boggart wouldn’t just be Snape anymore, it would be Snape with _that_ expression.

He could forget about the Carrows. He could forget about his Gran, probably in danger but stubbornly refusing to go into hiding. He could forget about how empty the dormitory was with Ron and Harry and Dean gone.

Instead he could focus on the corner of Ginny’s mouth, on the way she laughed. On the heat of her skin that felt like a shock to his system when he shoved her shirt up. Could focus on all the years they had been friends, on learning magic together at the DA, and now fighting and kissing. He could focus on the way her hair tickled his nose and the shape of her fingers.

He blinked to find her straddling his waist, red hair falling all over her shoulders. “Ginny,” he said and a shocked groan escaped him when she shifted slightly. “Have you done this—?”

“What kind of girl do you think I am?” she asked, and Neville had managed to get her sweater off, only a light undershirt remaining, rucked up and revealing most of the skin of her stomach. “Do you think I’ve slept with them all or something. Terry and Dean and—”

“No,” Neville said quickly, shaking his head. “No, no, Merlin, no. I mean, if you did,” he blushed. “That, that wouldn’t be—bad. I mean,” he fumbled again because she had stilled. “It would be bad because I’d be—jealous. I’d be jealous but it wouldn’t be bad for you and I’ve never done this, not ever so if you had maybe one of us wouldn’t mess up and I just—” He stopped talking when Ginny kissed him again, soft and warm and he made a sound like a jinx had hit him in the stomach.

“I’ve not done this before,” she said, fingers framing Neville’s face.

“Oh,” Neville said. “Oh Merlin,” and he had to kiss her again, it was a need deep in his bones.

“Are you certain?” he managed a while later, Ginny laid out on her back on his bed and her red hair everywhere on his pillow. He wondered if it was going to smell like her later and both hoped so and dreaded it.

“Yes,” she said, wiggling her hips and he tugged at her pants again, which had gotten tangled up while they were distracted from actually undressing by kissing again.

“Bloody hell, I almost wish you wore skirts more,” he managed, finally getting them off.

“Almost?” Ginny laughed, looking up at him with an arched brow.

“You look good in anything,” he said, hands touching the exposed skin and she shuddered, legs coming up slightly. “But a skirt would have been easier is all.”

“Neville,” she said, voice strained, and pulling his hands off her legs and up higher. Anything else he had been thinking got lost completely as he touched and explored and watched her fall apart because of what his hands were doing. He had never thought his hands were good for anything, except possibly taking care of plants.

But feeling her spasm around his fingers, he decided that apparently he had just been wrong.

“Merlin, Ginny,” he managed, as she tried to catch her breath, still shaking and twitching against him.

She blinked at him, eyes finally focusing again before tackling him, rolling him over and kissing him. “I really,” Neville started and lost his train of thought completely.

-0-

Sometime during the night Seamus had snuck back in, waking neither of them up until the morning light filtered through the curtains.

“Come on,” Seamus said, startling Neville awake and he blinked blearily up at his friend, wondering about the warm weight against his chest before he yelped, hitching the blanket up higher around himself and Ginny. They had forgotten to close the curtains of the bed, and their clothes were still scattered everywhere, the ice pack from the night before having melted on the floor. “Oh don’t worry,” Seamus said as Ginny glared at him. “You were both rather wrapped up. I didn’t see anything.”

“Turn around,” Ginny said as Neville hid his face behind his hands. “I need to get my clothes.”

“Right, right,” Seamus said because he had been staring and Neville groaned in embarrassment. Ginny paused from where she had been leaning over him to find her bra—which had ended up beneath the pillow—to kiss him, quick and chaste because they were going to be late for breakfast if she didn’t get back to her own room and dress.

“I’ll see you in a minute,” she said, kissing him again and hurrying out the door once she had her clothes through on haphazardly.

Neville didn’t want to look up. “Oh, hell,” he said to his hands and Seamus finally laughed.

“Just close the damn curtains next time,” he said.

“It’s not like I have any experience sneaking around,” Neville protested as Seamus kept laughing. “Oh stop it.”

“You know, with her,” Seamus said, after they had rushed through dressing. He seemed to be starting to say something, looking at Harry’s bed significantly.

“Merlin, don’t,” Neville groaned and for once Seamus listened and didn’t start.

-0-

“You’ll be careful, won’t you?” Neville asked, kissing Ginny against the wall next to the door of the compartment of the Hogwarts Express as it took them home for the Christmas holidays.

“Yes,” she said, Luna calmly ignoring them, frowning at the Quibbler she was reading. “Will you?”

“I’m the careful one,” Neville protested. “I am. It’ll just be me and Gran, and we’re not the types to get into trouble.”

Ginny stared at him a moment before nodding and dragging him back down for another kiss.

-0-

Neville felt like he had been crying since Luna was taken away, on and off until he thought about it again and then something in him shattered all over because Luna was gone and they didn’t know where or if she was alive. They thought she was alive but they didn’t _know_.

Walking back into Hogwarts, Neville had seen Draco, who looked pale and scared all the time now and wanted to punch him in the face. Just for the satisfaction of it, though he knew that actually doing it wouldn’t make anyone feel better—him, Draco, or the bystanders.

“Did you have a good break?” he managed to ask Ginny when they finally escaped, curled up in Neville’s bed with the curtains drawn. So long as they put silencing spells up, Seamus didn’t say anything except occasional good natured ribbing.

“Neville,” Ginny shook her head. “You don’t have to pretend you’re okay—”

“’m not,” he murmured. “Just, I mean, I had a quiet one.”

“It was,” she looked down, tracing the top of the comforter. “It was hard. Ron’s still gone, and Bill and Fleur didn’t come. Fred and George are—they’re angry and they’re frustrated and that makes them loud and hard to deal with. Mum kept waiting for Percy to show and he never did,” she shook her head again. “Dad’s just tired now.”

Neville sighed, rubbing her shoulder and tugging her closer against his chest. “I missed you,” he said. “I’m not sure I missed this place, for the first time in my life—”

“They all tried to convince me not to come back,” Ginny said, not meeting his gaze. “They said it wasn’t safe but, well, the fight’s still here isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Neville agreed, looking down. “The fight’s still here.”

Shifting, Ginny pulled away and crawled around until she faced him. “Are you alright?” she asked. “With Luna disappearing like that. I know the two of you,” and she trailed off, something behind her eyes that made Neville frown.

“The two of us? You were friends with her first, how are you doing with her being gone?” His stomach twisted up and ached because nothing had really prepared him for not knowing how Luna was doing.

“Yeah, but I wasn’t,” Ginny started and stopped again, flushing when Neville looked at her in confusion.

“You weren’t—” he started to ask before realization hit and his eyes widened. “You don’t honestly think we were, a couple? Or like a couple, or anything to do with being couples, do you?” he asked, shocked and she just looked more unhappy.

“You acted like you were crazy for her,” Ginny said. “And you never minded that she touched you—no one else could really, you flinched away but you never minded when—” She broke off with a frustrated sound and looked away.

“I’ve let you touch me,” Neville managed, trying to think if that really had been his reaction before, to flinch away. He didn’t trust many people who tried to approach him, that was true, and usually when they bothered it was either to hold him back, or to hurt him in some way. “But—I’ve never wanted to, with Luna. Not what we,” and Ginny was finally looking back at him. “She’s my best friend. She’s the one who’s there for me, when,” and he couldn’t finish the sentence. Because Ron and Hermione had Harry, and Harry had much more important things to worry about, and last year Ginny had been dating him. So really it had been him and Luna. “She’s just there for me. I trust her. That’s probably why you would think—but we’re not. I adore her, I don’t,” and he cut off again.

Ginny shifted forward slightly again. “I’m sorry,” she managed. “Merlin, that was petty of me.”

Neville’s smile was weak. “Where you jealous?”

Ginny’s fingers finally slid across his cheeks and she pulled him into a soft kiss, and he fell against her. She was still as warm as he had ever remembered or dreamed about during the long break. “You were jealous of Harry, and Dean, and Terry…”

“Yeah but you actually dated them,” Neville murmured, hands pulling her waist closer.

“How was I supposed to know you never had?” Ginny asked. “Or at the very least that you didn’t want to?”

“By paying attention?” Neville offered and kissed her again because he didn’t want to hear her answer.

-0-

It got harder without Luna. There was an attention to detail, and wild planning that made her unique among the other students. Seamus obviously tried to step up, but he hadn’t the flights of fancy or quick mind to make up for her disappearance. On the other hand, he was really good at blowing things up, and they caused hours of havoc that way.

“I feel like Fred and George would be proud,” Ginny said one day, when Muggle Studies was canceled due to an explosion that took out an entire corridor for hours. It had a mix of fire and smoke and sticky goo all over the floor.

“We’re carrying on a proud legacy,” Seamus deadpanned back. “Not to mention I used about half their products in that.”

“You should write promotions for them,” Neville remarked.

-0-

Except then Ginny never came back from Easter.

They had discussed it in a vague way one night before they left, Neville with a black eye and a bad case of the shakes. “You know, you don’t have to come back either,” Ginny said, serious and watching him.

“Of course I do,” he replied, not meeting her eyes and pulling her back against his chest, holding on. “If you have to stay safe, then do whatever you have to. But I’ll always come back.”

Her long fingers wrapped around his hands on her stomach and they sat in silence.

When he didn’t see her on the train, he didn’t even pretend to be surprised, just watched the landscape unfurl around him while he sat alone.

There were so many empty compartments on the Hogwarts Express now.

-0-

 Everything after that seemed to blur together into stupid acts and eventual hiding, sneaking around Hogwarts and hoping he would stay alive. His Gran was on the run now too, and Ginny was in hiding.

But he kept fighting, until eventually more and more students joined him in the Room of Requirement. Thankfully the space would expand so they weren’t too crowded yet, but he feared that eventually the Carrows and Snape would find a way inside and they would never be safe again.

Except then Harry Potter appeared one night, looking exhausted and harried and saying he only came back to look for something.

The betrayal burned hot in Neville’s chest, because he had been fighting for _so long_. And Harry had been too, his eyes were haunted and dark and Neville knew his road had been no easier but that didn’t stop the resentment bubbling up in his chest.

He had called everyone anyway.

Later he would wonder how the battle would have gone if he hadn’t tipped their hand so far in desperation, gathering them all in one place when Voldemort was already on his way, or if they would have simply been massacred.

Either way, he had not expected Ginny to step out of the passageway with her family.

“You’re not—” he started, already walking toward her and stopping when he realized Harry was standing right there and she was looking at him. Before she had time to turn her gaze around, he decided he had somewhere else to be.

-0-

Neville couldn’t tell if the battle was going well or ill, because he was running around frantically, through areas of the castle that were quiet, and others that boiled over with giants and death eaters. He hoped it was going well, frantically juggling plants and jinxes because the DA had taught him to use defensive spells. But plenty of other people were already good at dueling with their wands. Far fewer had any skill with plants.

He turned down a corridor, pods tucked into a basket in his hands and froze to see Ginny sprinting toward him. “What are you doing?” he yelped as she skidded to a stop next to him. “You aren’t supposed to be here, you’re not seventeen yet—”

Her eyes narrowed dangerously and oh he recognized that look with an ache deep in his bones. Before he could think about it—about Harry—he had reached out, dropping the basket which thankfully landed upright without spilling any of the pods in it. His hands were around her waist and his mouth against hers after months of being apart.

“You’re not honestly going to lecture me, are you?” Ginny managed when they pulled back, trying to breathe.

“No,” he decided, because he had accepted her help too many times in the past. “I wish you weren’t but you’re here and that’s just how it is.” He picked up the basket again, handing one of the pods to her and turning to the wall that had been broken open, death eaters beneath them. “Here, help me throw these.”

“Honestly?” she asked, wrinkling her nose and looking at the pods. “Of all the—” She stopped as she watched Neville’s thrown pod explode sap everywhere, burning the arms and chest of the death eater it hit. “Alright. Nevermind. It’s brilliant. I take all my doubts back.”

He wanted to kiss her again and lobbed another pod instead.

-0-

The first thing Neville saw clearly for hours after that was Ginny and Bellatrix facing down across the Great Hall, and the shock of it went through his system as he was already running. Even yelling down Voldemort, even cutting off the head of the damn snake, he had felt bone deep tired, and like the world was inching around him. It wasn’t just Ginny in danger—it was Bellatrix’s laugh and that woman had taken too much from him already.

He reached Ginny’s side only after Molly had already stepped up, steel in her spine and rage in her voice because she would lose no one else that night either. Neville came to a stumbling stop next to Ginny, the sword still in one hand in time to see Bellatrix shatter like glass falling over the floor.

He caught Ginny with shaking hands, staring at the place where Bellatrix had once stood, shocked and numbed. Something had come lose in his chest but before he could look at it too closely, Ginny’s hand was tight on his arm. “Neville,” she whispered but they both turned at another bang, in time to see Voldemort and Harry circling each other and talking. Ginny’s hand tightened compulsively on his arm and he felt numb. Even though all their eyes were on Harry, somehow it hurt that she was watching him and holding Neville.

Because no one chose Neville Longbottom over Harry Potter, and Harry would probably her again, set up a house with a picket fence and have a gaggle of kids. If he survived the next few minutes of course, Neville quietly added. But if Harry didn’t they probably were all gone.

He almost jumped out of his skin when he felt another hand on his other arm, Luna having slipped through the crowd so they stood together again, and watched the end.

-0-

Neville sat, frowning at all the people around him as if trying to figure out why they were there. The sword of Gryffindor sat beside him at his elbow and he thought there was a Ravenclaw trying to explain why they were friends when he was fairly certain the boy had once spent an entire year teasing and bullying him.

“Neville,” Luna said at his elbow and Neville dragged her into an automatic hug. Luna smiled, patting him on the head and ignoring the fact there was still some blood in his hair. “Ginny’s looking for you.”

“I’d think she could see me,” Neville managed and Luna’s look sharpened for a moment before she smiled and pushed his shoulder slightly.

“Go and find her,” she urged and with a heavy sigh Neville pushed himself to his feet. He paused before lifting the sword again, though it felt silly to drag it around with him he did not want to leave it behind either.

He found her sitting on a windowsill, knees drawn up to her chest. “If you’re going to carry that thing around, you should get a sheath or something,” she remarked, watching him approach. There were obvious tear tracts on her face.

“Not sure there is one,” Neville said. “I’m not ready to let go either.”

She nodding, sniffing again and rubbing a hand across her cheeks. “Funny, that we tried to steal it so long ago.”

 “It wasn’t really in Snape’s office though,” Neville said, sitting on the other end of the window ledge from her. She reached out, touching the sword lightly before withdrawing her hand. “Not really. We would have stolen a fantastic fake though.”

She laughed, the sound weak and Neville remembered seeing Fred lying still. He reached a hand out, cupping her knee and after months the touch felt so familiar it made him ache all over. “Ginny,” he started, wondering where Harry was.

Before he could ask, she shifted forward, pressing their mouths together and he could taste and feel her tears. “But,” he protested, when she drew back slightly. “Harry—”

“What about him?” she frowned, eyes darkening even though she’d shifted forward again and he let the sword fall to the floor.

“Well he’s back now,” Neville said, not quite able to look at her eyes but focusing on her mouth instead and perhaps that was worse. “And, well, it’s always been you two, hasn’t it?”

Her fingers wrapped around his chin and she yanked his head up. “Except when it was you and me,” she said. “I thought you said you didn’t want to be his left overs. Where you honestly thinking I’d run back to him the instant he reappeared?”

“Well,” he started weakly, meeting her eyes. “Yes?”

“Neville Longbottom,” she hissed. “You _idiot_.” And she was kissing him again and he caught her around the waist, pulling her closer as he shuffled back to brace his back on the wall. She crawled into his lap before finally breaking the kiss and the sword was on the floor in front of them. “You would deserve if I did leave you just because you assumed I would.” She paused a beat and he stared at her in shock. “You idiot,” she repeated viciously.

“No one chooses me over him,” he said weakly and their teeth clanked painfully when they both moved in too hard and fast, her hands pulling his hair and his digging in to her shoulder blades. “I wasn’t expecting—”

“I love you,” she said and Neville felt his jaw drop. “What did you think the last year was about?”

“I don’t know,” he managed. “Merlin, when you say it like that I really am an idiot.”

Ginny’s smile was slow and it felt like the sun was coming out. “You are an idiot, Neville Longbottom. A very smart idiot.”

“We have to be smart,” he murmured, a phrase he had repeated and yelled at her for months. They stared at each other for a moment before he laughed and she chuckled once before pulling him tight against her chest, where he laughed until he cried into her shoulder.

“You’re my smart idiot,” Ginny murmured into his hair as she held him. “I’m never giving you up.”

Taking a shaky breath he tilted his head back, offering her a wavering smile. “Is that a promise, Ginerva Weasley?”

“Yes,” she said, smoothing the hair back from his face and kissing his forehead.

Neville took a deep breath and kissed her again, hands going to her cheeks and ignoring the blood and dirt and tears on both of them because the battle was over. He didn’t even notice the audience they had, students crowded into the doorway and whispering excitedly with each other, or Molly’s starry eyed look.

Until one of the students cheered and Neville and Ginny’s heads whipped around. “Oh Merlin,” Neville managed and Ginny buried her face in his shoulder, wrapping herself tighter around him. “Erm. Well. That’s one way of letting everyone know.”

“That’s my sister,” Ron protested weakly and Neville could only give him a shaky smile. Seamus buried his head in his hands, leaning hard against Dean who had an arm over his shoulders and they looked like they were supporting each other.

“Come on,” Ginny said finally, pushing herself up and grabbing his hand. “Let’s go… at least shower.”

Scooping up the sword with one hand, Neville nodded, twining their hands tightly together. “I’d follow you anywhere,” he said softly, so the others couldn’t hear and the smile she gave him over her shoulder was blinding.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I seem to be shipping Neville with everyone. Though I really enjoyed writing this one.


End file.
